As a millennial within the bass community, there are two common misconceptions I often come across: my generation is not socially engaged and electronic music lacks substance. On the contrary, I have found that there are many artists, fans, and people within the electronic music scene passionately working to evoke social change and make the world a better place.

A great example of this is EDM producer/DJ Minnesota, born Christian Bauhofer, who recently teamed up with Electric Family to raise money for the Melanoma Foundation of New England. Electric Family is a company that partners with EDM artists to donate a portion of proceeds from bracelets and apparel to a charity of the artist’s choice.

Christian’s step-brother Connor lost his battle with stage four metastatic melanoma. This loss evoked Christian’s passion for melanoma funding and awareness. His step-mother, Tracy, pledged to run in the Boston Marathon in Connor’s memory and raise $30,000 for the Melanoma Foundation of New England, which is higher than anyone else participating.

The Boston Marathon occurs later this month, and Tracy is about $4,000 shy of her goal; Christian and Electric Family’s plan of action is to set aside a few days where 20% of all sales will go toward Tracy’s goal in the Melanoma Foundation of New England 2014 Boston Marathon. Christian said that one of his main objectives this year, along with releasing new music, is to utilize his platform as an artist for social awareness.

“There are a lot of artists within our community of underground music like GRiZ and The Polish Ambassador that are using social media for positive impact,” said Christian. “I feel like I haven’t taken too much advantage of the ability I have to help causes like that, but from being affected personally, I really want to dive into that this year and do more than just make music; I want to raise money for causes that my family and I want to support.”

In addition to raising funds for melanoma research and awareness with Electric Family, Christian is in the process of crafting his new release “Voyage,” which is scheduled to be released May 15th. You can preview it here: